In commercial cooking, food is prepared in large quantities and is placed in serving vessels, such as pans, chafing dishes or the like to be kept warm until it is served. At that time, utensils, such as spoons, spatulas, forks or the like, are used to transfer the food from the serving vessels to the individual serving plates. However, between servings, the utensils are usually returned to the serving vessel with the handle resting on the edge of the serving vessel. Unfortunately, this causes the handle of the utensil to project outwardly from the serving vessel, putting it at risk of being accidentally hit by a passer-by and knocked out of the serving vessel, splattering some of the food and causing the spilled food and the utensil to fall onto the floor. Obviously, when this occurs, the mess must be cleaned up and new utensils must be provided to replace the ones which have fallen on the floor. Alternatively, the utensil may be placed on the table, rather than in the proper serving vessel, and may be used to deliver food from a different serving vessel, thereby contaminating the food in both serving vessels. These problems cause considerable unnecessary work for the employees and add significantly to the cost of preparing the food. Unfortunately, the prior art has provided no solution for these problems.